Author: goodkarma

So one of the things I mentioned last time is that I’d like to use this space partly as a garden journal. One thing I love even more than the actual gardening is marking things in seed catalogs. Seed Catalog Day is hands-down my favorite day of the whole year. I circle, I fold corners down, I add to my spreadsheet, I drink tea, I research different varieties, and have an all-around joyful time of it. In the researching aspect of it, I am always so grateful to find reviews on certain varieties and even more stoked when I find actual blog posts from people who have grown them. I don’t find these too often. Probably because the ones I tend to look up are more obscure or heirloom varieties rather than the popular mainstream ones you hear about. So this is another goal for this blog. To be able to post a bit about my experiences with strange varieties and maybe help other nerdy seed-researchin’ folks with their seed buyin’ decisions.

I, of course, have my favorites I grow every year (Rainbow Chard, Scotch Curled Kale, Sweet Banana Peppers, Stupice Tomatoes, Lemon Cucumbers, Black Hungarian Peppers, Pineapple Sage, etc.), but I always make room for new ones. A few new things I tried last year that exceeded my expectations and have become new favorites include Double Yield Cucumbers, Oriole Chard, Thousand-Headed Kale, Bekana Greens, and Jade II Beans.

This year, some new varieties I’m excited about are Grandma Mary’s Tomatoes, Etuida Peppers, Green Leaf Gailan, New Zealand Spinach, Camelina, and Mother of Pearl Poppies (which I’ve had my eye on for years now). Hopefully, I can do a good job of documenting some of these here this year.

“Each of us wages a private battle each day between the grand fantasies we have for ourselves and what actually happens.”
― Cathy Guisewite

And sometimes the fantasies aren’t all that grand. I thought, “Hey! Fresh start! New goals! Gonna try this whole blog thing again!” I started. I’ll give myself that much. But the time between when I started (again) that first post and the time I hit the ‘Publish’ button: ten days. Ten days, y’all. That’s not how this whole thing was supposed to go. I did, however, put “blog post” in my planner. And at the end of each day when I inevitably didn’t finish and post it, I moved it to the next day’s to-do list, like a responsible adult.

Perhaps I just needed to get the ball rolling and once it is, it will just…happen. (Shhh. That’s what I’m telling myself.) I’m not a blogger though. I’ve tried and failed at this a few times. Part of my problem is that I get a little behind (who doesn’t?) but then I can’t get past it. I don’t want to skip over certain things and the thought of posting things out of order makes me twitchy. So then I get stuck and even further behind and it all gets too daunting to even try to get caught up. My goal this time around is to try my hardest to let go of that. I do read quite a few blogs and I have mad respect for those more disciplined than I. I truly don’t know how they do it.

So why am I even trying this again? A few reasons. One is that I want to be able to share a bit of the general goings-on with friends and family that don’t live near us. They don’t get to visit much, and I dislike the disconnect we sometimes feel. I used to use flickr as a psuedo-blog for this purpose, but I just couldn’t get behind the changes they made a few years ago. The look of it still throws me off every time I go there.

I also intend this to be a bit of a garden journal. I’m stellar at garden planning, but not so much at recording stuff after the plants and seeds are in the ground. I do take photos and spout verbal notes about things (mostly to the chickens and chipmunks), but these don’t get recorded anywhere in any sort of concrete searchable fashion. I figure this will be a good way to document such things because, frankly, the chickens are not as impressed by the hilarious butt-shaped tomatoes as I’d like them to be.

So there we go. My attempt at keeping the ball rolling. I can’t promise posts won’t be sporadic. (They will be.) Or that there will be very interesting things here. (Eh.) But here’s my attempt.

And since this post feels naked without a photo, reassurance on this 2°F day that we shall once again look out upon a lush green backyard. The days of an all-white landscape are numbered.

I’ve never been one for resolutions, but it’s hard not to feel like the beginning of a new year is a fresh start. A chance to wipe the slate clean and resolve (but in a non-resolution-y kind of way) that this year is the year to finally get your shit together. And it will totally be different than last year when you declared the same thing and, alas, your shit did not get gotten together. This is the year.

But I didn’t want to continue swimming in the Doing The Same Stuff And Expecting Different Results pool. I needed some kind of guidance. Or accountability. Or something. I happened across Leonie Dawson and her Life & Biz workbooks and was intrigued immediately. She’s a vibrant spirit with a genuine drive to help other people (women, specifically) reach their goals and have an amazing life (and biz). And she delivers it all in a self-proclaimed hippy woo-woo kind of style that obviously isn’t for everybody. I dug it though. And the nerdy little 2nd-grader in me dug the workbook idea. When do you, as an adult, get your very own workbook to fill out??

So it’s about goals, not resolutions. And it’s not just about making goals, but writing them down. And it’s not just writing them down, it’s actually checking back in with them regularly. This is the difference. Last year (and years before) there were goals. Maybe jotted down (though probably not). And then, I don’t know, left for the universe to figure out. Quickly forgotten in the chaos of the everyday. This workbook is brilliant. She guides you through looking back at what worked and what didn’t in the previous year and letting that go. There are spaces to fill out for goals, visions, resources, plans, self-care, and ideas and by the time you’re through it you have a clearer picture of what you want and what you need to get there. With a major part of that being going back through and reviewing the workbook often.

At my first end-of-the-month review I was kind of surprised at how much I’ve accomplished. The bulk of it due to the tools and planning this workbook offered. I’m feeling more organized than I have in awhile. It’s winter and this is the slower, calmer time of year for me in general. But I really do feel like I’m setting myself up for a smoother year even when things start getting more hectic. This is the year it all comes together.

I teamed up withFillmore Container for a giveaway in support of breast cancer awareness. You can enter to win these two pink cozies, the jars, AND two pink Cuppow lidsHERE.

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